No reasonable deed goes unpunished, eh?
That must be how wildlife managers or advocates who actually want to resolve the wolf-delisting impasse must feel.
On September 23, I posted a commentary with the title, Pro-Wolf Groups Blew It where I criticized the left-leaning plaintiffs in the various lawsuits for pushing too hard, too long, and turning fence setters and most western politicians into the anti-wolf camp and possibly endangering the integrity of the Endangered Species Act.
Now, the pendulum has swung to the far right.

That must be how wildlife managers or advocates who actually want to resolve the wolf-delisting impasse must feel.

On September 23, I posted a commentary with the title, Pro-Wolf Groups Blew It where I criticized the left-leaning plaintiffs in the various lawsuits for pushing too hard, too long and turning fence-sitters and most Western politicians into the anti-wolf camp and possibly endangering the integrity of the Endangered Species Act.

Now, the pendulum has swung to the far right.

Energized by newfound support from basically every Western senator and representative, anti-wolf hunting groups such as the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Mule Deer Foundation and Sportsman for Fish and Wildlife have not only insisted on extreme actions but, incredibly, also want to keep wildlife agencies and green groups from even talking to each other about a possible compromise.
If you followed my commentaries on the wolf issue, which I call “The Neverending Story,” you know that I have frequently and fiercely urged the stakeholders to sit down and work out a deal. I have even fantasized about being in charge of the negotiations, so I could order the stakeholders to bring a sleeping bag and a stack of pizzas, because we’d all be locked in a room until we can agree on a solution.

More Than Numbers

The wolf delisting controversy is much more than numbers, but the number of wolves does seem to be a key sticking point.

Anti-wolfers don’t want any “surplus wolves” around eating elk and deer, so they insist that the original recovery goal of 300 wolves (100 animals or 10 breeding pairs per state for Idaho, Montana and Wyoming) is all we need, period. Well, guys, that goal isn’t even close to reality, so give it up.

The 300-wolf number is the “minimum” recovery goal, not the population levels states should shoot for in management plans. Although the original recovery plan states 300 wolves constitutes a “viable population” (assuming travel corridors secure enough to assure “genetic connectivity”), it doesn’t say states should manage at that population level. Montana’s management plan, for example, which is the best of the bunch, already calls for maintaining a wolf population of 400 to 450 animals, just in Montana.

The final delsting rule written by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) lists three “triggers” which require a “status review,” or actual relisting, under the ESA:

1. If wolf numbers in any state fall below 100 wolves. (In other words, Montana could have 500 wolves, but if Idaho’s population fell to 90, the wolf would probably be relisted.)

2. If wolf numbers fell below 150 per state for three consecutive years.

3. If a state passed a new state law or approved a new management plan that could cause a significant threat to the wolf population.

Yet, anti-wolfers want only 300 wolves? Hello?! At the least, that’s totally self-defeating. Having only 300 wolves would virtually guarantee the FWS would relist wolves and take management away from state wildlife agencies.

Even managing for 150 wolves per state would be “knife-edge management.” Any other factor could come into play, such as a canine disease, and put the wolf back on the endangered species list.

Face it: There will always be more than 300 wolves running around the northern Rockies. If hunting groups can’t back off this extreme position (and stop calling it “moving the goal posts”), we’ll never get to the finish line.

All Wolf News is not Bad News

A few weeks ago, EarthJustice representing the plaintiffs and the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department (FWP) actually started talking about a settlement that could end the impasse, at least in Montana. Proposals and counterproposals have been made. Suddenly, it seems like something good could happen. Eureka!

Such talks are touchy, and they need to be conducted in private, not on the Internet, so I hope the press stands down to give the talkers a chance to succeed. I’m not sure what all might be involved in such a “settlement” or how it would affect Judge Donald Molloy’s August 5 ruling that relisted the wolf as an endangered species, nor do I know if any kind of Montana-only plan might fly. But let’s keep talking, OK?

Two things I’m sure will be in any such settlement are (1) a minimum, sustainable Montana population level way north of 100 wolves and (2) assurances from the plaintiffs that they’ll help Montana be exempted from the current court ruling and hence restore state wolf management.

Power Tripping?

Then, out of the blue, comes this press release and letter from the bosses of the three hunting groups. In their letter to Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer and FWP Director Joe Maurier, they say stop negotiating with those evil animal rights groups. You can’t trust them, they say, and we should use science to determine wolf populations.

Yes, this really revs up my motor, but where do I to start?

For starters, I suppose I should say that I often agree with the policies of these hunting groups, but on this issue, they need to be called out.

They criticize FWP for talking about something other than “science-based wolf management plans,” which, incidentally, Montana already has–and I’m quite sure wouldn’t consider anything less. Yet, on the other hand, these same groups want a totally political solution. They’re pushing Congress to amend the ESA to disallow listing of the gray wolf in all 12 states where the species occurs, even in those states with obviously endangered populations and, I might add, with zero scientific basis for doing so.

They criticize FWP for “closed-door settlement talks” when emissaries of these same groups are just back from Washington, D.C., where they had closed-door talks and tried to–and almost succeeded–tack a midnight rider on a Continuing Resolution to remove the wolf totally and forever from being protected under of the ESA. That’s scientific, eh?

They criticize FWP for not including other stakeholders in the settlement talks or having “public comment periods,” but again, these same guys are back in D.C. lobbying for a midnight rider without including other stakeholders such as representatives of wildlife agencies or agricultural groups. And congressional riders don’t allow for any public input or have a recordable vote.

They criticize the plaintiffs for using the wolf to sell memberships and as a fundraising tool, but they’re doing the same thing. I don’t imagine it hurts membership sales and donations for hunting groups to stay up on the soapbox publicly ranting about hundreds of “surplus” wolves running around the northern Rockies eating all the elk and deer.

I could go on, but you get the point. No wonder it takes us forever to get nowhere.

The Art of Reality

As I’ve suggested several times, reasonable people can agree on a reasonable reality. Accuse me of being a “wolf moderate,” but we really need to treat the wolf issue like a labor negotiation. Just hunkering down and refusing to negotiate is not an option. We must move on. Montana’s wolf management plan pretty much embodies that coveted middle-ground concept. The plaintiffs don’t worship it, of course, but they agree it’s better than Idaho’s plan and way better than Wyoming’s non-plan.

Green groups will oppose any Congressional action to resolve the wolf controversy, but now that’s the name of the game. Unless something happens soon, Congressional action will become our default position. And it could happen very soon, such as in the upcoming lame-duck session of the 111th Congress.

Another bill, S. 3864, sponsored by Montana Democratic Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester is a more moderate approach, but it could be problematic because it calls for leaving the wolf on the endangered species list until the FWS approves state management plans, which might not happen or not happen expeditiously. At least S. 3864 only covers Idaho and Montana and doesn’t include states without plans, like Wyoming, or states with beginning, obviously endangered wolf populations, like Oregon, Utah and Washington.

I can’t say I buy the Baucus-Tester bill completely, but at least somebody is out there trying do something reasonable that might become reality.

In conclusion, here’s one point on which we all can agree: We outdoor writers will have a lot of wolf stories to write about for a long, long time thanks to all this futile polarization.

Comments

Exactly what are you disagreeing with Ken? Are you trying to say over 60% of the elk are NOT gone, if they are, are you willing to admit that something is wrong? If not a problem what woudl it matter? Remember there have been 100+ adult wolves for several years in Yellowstone, each wolf eating approximately 2 elk per month, that would be 2400 per year, coupled with a very lwo calf count you do the math.

Todd, it does not matter if the bears attacked the hunters first. The bears were likely spooked and that is why they attacked and charged the hunters. Hunters still killed them. The wolves were not imported Marion. They were reintroduced and rightly so. Elk were overpopulated and they needed their numbers thinned a bit and wolves are perfect for that. bigsky, people like you try to come across as protecters of wildlife and act like you care about wildlife. Come on, let your real agenda out. You want to protect your wildlife so you hunters can shoot them yourselves.

So what you seem to be saying Todd, is you couldn’t give a crap about what disc 5 had to say about mankind’s ongoing, mindless, reckless destruction of other species and this planet, as long as you’ve got some great shots?

The issue of wolves and the private estate is, and will be, the State, the Government, shoving a known bad deal for livestock growers up their collective fanny. Forced wolf introduction. You can look at it from all the angles, and the livestock and domestic animal people, not on public land, lose along with public land use permit owners. The issue of whether wolves on the landscape is a better deal than not having them is yet to be decided, politically. The trumpeted “compensation” for livestock growers has been a canard of consequence. A joke. But stock losses, to wolves, are hard to calculate because having your livestock harassed all the time has a cost factor that can be measured. Wild, snotty, light weight, hard to handle cows is a result that is predictable, because that is what the wolves were brought in to do. Run their prey around, and create more feed for fewer animals, take out the youngest, the more inexperienced, the worn breeding bulls, the lame, the just unlucky. The cumulative results are not appreciated by the hunting public. Yes, they would like to kill and eat elk meat, also. But somehow, that is a second class option, as man is the oppressor and not worthy of game. Political and philosophical differences in a democracy. The tyranny of the majority will someday break the rule of the majority. Maybe that is what tomorrow will show.

Now the statistics and empirical knowledge indicate that wolf introduction has had damaging results on game herds across a broad landscape. People who had a vested interest in hunting from bullet sellers, guides, meat cutters, are being impacted. That is just another business in rural America being sliced from our economy, another thin slice of the economic salami, and when you add them all up, the slice pile is now much larger than the salami, which has grown noticeably small. The small salami is our collective economy, as the slices to out sourcing, environmental shut downs, the welfare state, unsupportable wages and benefits, myriad governmental decisions “to protect” the people have kept on slicing the salami. Somehow, we have to grow the salami. Find jobs, create jobs, and demand that people find ways other than the State to support themselves. I saw a story on a small effort to put the unemployed to work in ag in harvest season, and the effective placement rate was 3% of the open jobs taken by American citizens not of Hispanic origin. The illegal alien is doing the work Americans will not. And I can imagine that is true in other fields than agriculture. Our culture of welfare is a better way of life than third world residents ever had, so why work when you can live, stay warm and dry, and eat, all provided by Progressives seeking votes?? And, you don’t have to pay to send your kids to school or see the doctor. How much better can it get???

We have exported our older workforce jobs. To nations with a large young workforce. Over 50 and you will most likely never find another job that utilizes your experience and education. There is a young third world person, with education, to do that job. In India, there are more kids in talented and gifted programs than there are kids on school in the United States. I say that because my experience with ranching families is that they send their kids to college, if only because the ranch can support but one family at a time. The kids have to get educated to be able to support themselves. That public land rancher is producing calves for the feed lot and students for the university and our educated work force. Look at who leads in this country and you find ranch kids like Sandra Day O’Conner, Bruce Babbitt, Montana Governor Schweitzer, and many, many others. I would defend ranching as an incubator for future leadership in this country, all based on the stark reality that the ranch can only support one family at a time, and so the ranch families have to educate their kids to thrive elsewhere. The work ethic, the goal oriented mindset, all work to produce a pretty good kid for the country, the ranch kid. Of course, the trust puppy types who so hate ranchers must know that for every rancher, there is a couple or more of his or her kids working elsewhere just as hard as mom and pop. And God knows America is always in dire need of goal oriented, hard working young people to try and keep our American ball in the air…if that is still possible. Tomorrow we will find out our direction for the next couple of years.

jay: my state gets back about 90 cents on the dollar of taxes we send to the Progressives in Washington DC. I have no idea where that puts us, but we have never had a Senator Byrd who earmarked his state of West Virginia to affluence with government jobs and installations. I never found a Sen. Robert Byrd outhouse to dump in, but there is probably more than one memorial shithouse to the late Senator in West Virginia.. His name is on wayyyyyyyy too many buildings and roads and bridges in that state. All of it was pork. Pigmeat Bryd, the right honorable Senator from West Virginia.

Us Westerners have all this public land, and we actually have a huge rock on our backs to pack, as all the benefit now is amenity and sensibility based, on the cheap. So our local taxes have to pay the cost of roads to the USFS land, the courts n which trespassers get cited, the schools the Gummint kids go to, and all the rest of the local public costs.

Don’t mechanically manage fuels, but burn it in conflagration because forest fires are “good.” If they are good, why do we have a USFS?? Their whole purpose, and their being managed by the USDA, is that USFS lands were thought of as crop lands and produced crops of trees, water, grass, to be used. Interior, the old General Land Office, was the manager of “unclaimed public domain” by law. The Parks Service was a division and is a division of Interior, as are USFWS, Indian Affairs, and other public land holdings, “improvents”, and responsibilities. All except the forests and rangelands that were put under control of the Dept. of Agriculture. Now we expect Ag to act like the Park Service, USFSWS, and all the rest. We don’t need USDA “managing” forests by benign neglect, as that just creates another government welfare program we no longer can afford.

We cannot afford to placate the muslim world, nor can we be an expensive peace keeper. Let the rotten bastards kill each other forever. Let Islam take its place in the world protecting and lionizing women as chattel, to be disfigured to make them unattractive to anyone other than the person they are married to. And let Interior manage public lands now that the USFS is no longer in the natural resource use business. It is time to shrink government at all levels, from Defense to nanny state caretakers. Shrink it all. Let the public sector lose some jobs, which does have to happen when the private sector is shrunk by poor public policy and disinterested congressmen and women. We lost our ability to pay for Big Government. Spent much more than we can now even service. If your credit card payment was 48% to interest and 52% to paying a bill, you would soon be bankrupt, and those are the numbers, the percentages, that our US Govt is paying out of the budget. 48% goes to paying interest on buy outs, bail outs, and borrowing to buy votes. INTEREST!!! Not a dime on principal. Anyone remember “shrinky dinks”, the deals you made as a kid and put in the oven for a minute and it shrunk your art work??? We have now shrinky dink government. They take your money and shrink it, and then tell you how pretty it is. Just like mom and dad did with your art work. When your government is up to its ass in debt to where half of their income goes to pay interest, and interest is at an all time low, you know that we are screwed if we keep on going with the same players. Screwed, blued, and tattooed…Hey!!! That looks just like the under thirty crowd of today!!!! They dress the part!!! They KNOW what their fate is!!!

I appreciate your post, Bearbait, as its one of reasonable discussion. I am 72 years old and do neither play bingo nor do I have “old-timers” disease and really do not appreciate some of the disrespect the younger generation portrays against their elders. It shows the ‘signs of the times’.
I grew up on a ranch, was riding horses, bareback, when my daddy did not have to change my diaper, helping to round up the range stock. I married a wildlife biologist and we raised 4 children and have four great-grandchildren at the moment. My husband has been a snow ranger, mountain rescue, fought major forest fires and then went into the wildlife field which was his college degree. Our children spent much of their growing up days in the back country even at the ages of two (2) months using a suitcase as a bassinet in a tipi while my husband did his job. I am not “Formally” educated by books but I believe my life has educated me concerning the management of our lands and wildlife.
My husband debated Professors in a College when the Endangered Species Act was being debated in Congress. At the time it was considered as something that was needed but my husband saw “beyond” the good use of the act into the abuse such as it is now. He also was among the first to mention that this very act could lead the way into gun legislation and how dangerous both could be in the wrong hands. We are seeing this now. Forests are dieing as proper management is not being used, Wildlife is being decimated due to an animal that is not even a pure wolf, which is illegal. Mankind no longer has the rights to manage his or her own life as the gov’t wants to put everyone into servitude. Free enterprise is slowly going away and gov’t give aways have become the medium making younger generations stand in line waiting for their handouts.
Yes, Bearbait the country kid is the one who will turn this nation around as he knows what its like to enjoy the good feelings of accomplishment of a job well done. One of our neighbor’s sons has now been in Iraq four terms. He has been blown up and shot, but is still on his post as it is something he believes in. He also said that those rural boys and girls were the ones the commanding officers wanted as they already were good “sharp-shooters”. Wonder why.
Oh yes, did I say, “I don’t play bingo, I do shoot a bow and a rifle”. Those that show little respect get little respect as that is something which is earned and not automatic.

Montana has Baucus, who did what will be, in the end, a $billion dollar REIT buyout of Plum Creek cutover land, after PCT cuts all the merch timber. And to keep Whorehouser at bay, gave them a pre-REIT tax break of $172 Million in the same bill. Pigmeat Baucus, the keeper of the purse in the Senate, is funneling mucho dinero to his state. Sort of. Nobody can eat land, as a lot of asset heavy land owners have discovered, and what real people need is a job and a chance to buy some of that subsidized beef and mutton. Hell, I’d go for a couple dozen tubes of horse meat burger, but the ecobunnies put the kibosh to that. Lean meat. Sweet lean meat. As any predator that kills a horse to eat knows. Good eating.

Horse story: years and years ago, this guy I used to fish with lived in a logging camp turned small town, and his dad was a two moonlight rides and a picnic lunch railroad logger. The guy I knew was a typical country kid, full of piss and vinegar, and self sufficient as hell. One night he and his brother go spot lighting, and right away they see some eyes and drop it like a rock. Shit! A horse. A frigging horse! They just boogied. Went home and said not a thing about it. When they got up for breakfast, at ‘ought thirty in the a.m., ’cause that is when mom made breakfast for dad, built his lunch, and the kid’s lunch, and made sure everyone was off to work or school on time, the two boys come down out of the attic for their morning bowl of mush and a couple of eggs over easy, and when things were good, maybe some backstrap or bacon. The morning after the ill fated spot light session, they came down to breakfast, and not a word was spoken to them, but there was a shovel leaning against both of their chairs. As pop left for work, he said in parting “Get your chores done, and don’t be late for the school bus.” He told me that was maybe the worst week of his life. Ridicule at school, dirty clothes on the bus, and the neighbor talking to them about summer and how they were going to pay for a horse. How did parents know?? How did they find out?? This guy did not have a telephone, and there was only one phone in the whole of the town at the logging company office. If they got a fire, a speeder flew into town to tell the office inkslinger that they had a fire and needed help…and the trust fund puppy’s dad paid their way out of scrapes. Do you think Baucus ever spent his own money on stuff? Or someone else’s?

Mansfield in Montana, and Wayne Morse from Oregon. They, along with the first Senator from Alaska, (I can’t remember his name), were the peaceniks of their time. Voted against war at every opportunity. Probably were right every time.

Bearbait: Funny that you mentioned Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon. We were with the USFS at the time and had been with the FS for quite awhile, that was the starting of the “90 Day Wonders” (what those of us who had the actual experience of being in the woods) and they were the Forestry Grads fresh out of colleges who ‘knew so much more than the old timers’. Most still were wet behind the ears and needed to have their noses wiped. It was the one without a degree in Forestry who could not advance his career and also the women were introduced into a workforce in some jobs as they had no business in due to the stature or build of a woman causing the men to do most of the heavy lifting. Not a nice time. Anyone ‘Career’ on this position but had ‘Tech’ had to be laid off for two months out of the year. The Careers had the Forestry Degree, nothing else mattered. My husband had a Wildlife Degree so he was a Tech and was on the list of Techs. I wrote to then Senator Morse what a bunch of garbage this was and experience along with time and work reports should account for a full time job. Senator Morse sent my letter along with his to the Regional Office, which then sent a letter with the others to the Supervisor’s Office who in turn with a letter plus all the rest to my husbands boss, the Ranger and he was asked to answer all the above including me. My husband was called into the office and the boss pleaded that if something was wrong to please see him before your wife writes Senator Morse. Now he had to answer all these people plus me. My husbands along with others on the District were NOT riffed due to the wave my letter helped in setting off. We left the Forest Service on our own a year or so later, to much politics plus 90 day wonders had infiltrated the system. Senator Morse always maintained “that a smooth pond became stagnant and putrid over time so he enjoyed throwing rocks into the water, causing waves to keep that from happening”. I thought that was pretty right.

90 day wonders from different eras. I guess the original Forest Service 90 day wonders were the ones that Gifford Pinchot first hired when he and Teddy Roosevelt started the Forest Service. The ones that I ran into were old WWII vets who went to forestry school on the G.I. bill and made District Ranger in less than a year when the Forest Service was rapidly expanding after the War. By the 80s and 90s they had long since mastered the bureaucracy and were holding up overeducated baby boomers and progress and counting the months and years to retirement. It was during this era that the Forest Service made a silly decision to require transfer for promotion and also to rapidly promote white women Rangers along with a few minorities. And Voila! You’ve got the Forest Service that you know and love today!

We started with the FS in the 50’s and it wasn’t too bad. In fact it was a pretty good outfit, pay was pretty bad, but livable if you were on the Station. It started to become “political correct” in the 60’s for us, but then we were pretty close to the S.O. and R.O. so maybe that made the difference. But the 90 day wonders were the fresh college grads at that time who were superimposed over those who had spent years in the businesses and knew how to take care of the forests. Some would have made terrific Rangers and so on but they had worked their way up through the Grades the hard way however no Degree so they were put out to pasture. Really sad affair.

There were a few wolves around at that time but nothing like it is now. We had a lot of deer, elk and grizzlies as well without the planting and interfering by the gov’t. The type of wolf that has been introduced into this country is not the ones we used to see then. We had real respect then but today it is far worse now. It’s the same with the grizzlies.

Marion, and taxpayers are also paying for wildlife services go around in helicopters and kill wildlife on behalf of ranchers. Ranchers are stealing money from the taxpayer. There are many more elk in the usa than wolves.

First of all, it would not be real smart to have predators equal prey species unless you are planning to turn humans into prey species too. Each wolf kills approximately 2 elk per month.
Have you checked to see how much “wildlife” is killed where you live by the government or do you care?
What wildlife specifically are you complaining about the government killing? Wolves? They were brought in from another country as an experimental non essential predator with the plan to kill those who killed livestock since they knew from the get go they would kill privately owned livestock and pets. So I guess you could blame those that wanted them brought in and those who brought them in. The ranchers are the helpless pawn in the whole mess.
The planet can only be saved by each person starting in their own home instead of trying to contorl folks who live far away. that is true starting with the size of your home, figuring out what life is displaced by your home as well as residences where you are, how much resources you use to maintain your home, what kind and how many vehicles you have. What do you personally do about feral pets and what ultimately happens to them. Deciding you know what is best for people elsewhere is just never going to work.

Our govt. kills many other animals we call wildlife besides wolves on behalf of ranchers… Where is your anger among ranchers? Oh, that’s right, you are pro rancher and you don’t care that taxpayers are footing the bill for wildlife services going around in planes killing native wildlife.

So how come they’re feeding 5500-8000 elk at Jackson Hole every March? How come the NPS & Wyoming fish and game annually issues about 900 permits to kill about 300 elk on the way to the refuge? You people are obviously living on a make believe planet.

bigsky, that is what your kind says about the jackson hole elk herd too but anyone who has been to Jackson hole know that elk are doing pretty good, actually very good and some might even claim that elk in Jackson Hole are overpopulated. Didn’t your kind also claim that wolves have wiped all of the elk out in Jackson Hole? The facts paint a very different picture than what you wolf haters are painting. It will only be a matter of time before wolves move into other states. Wolf reintroduction will happen naturally without the help of humans. The wolf is back to claim its rightful place in the world. Haters keep on hating, it won’t change a thing.

I think Idaho proved last year that it could in fact manage wolves, and the quota was not that high, nor did it get filled. It was easily replaced in the spring. Obviously that wasn’t enough for the wolf huggers that a state was making an honest go at managing wildlife, wildlife that it didn’t agree with having there, but made a compromise and did decide to spend the money for studies, and eventually that scientific evidence supported the hunting season that was put in effect.

All legality aside if the wolf lovers would have had common sense and actually cared about this country instead of their own personal agenda they would have recognized this and not attacked just because of non-compliance in a legal issue. Or maybe they did this because they wanted to make sure they were patriots and that everyone should uphold the law…now that is a good joke, no way they have that much spine.

No one can really take a side of NO WOLVES or WOLVES, it has to be managed now that they are here, what is wrong with these wolf huggers that they can’t just recognize that and let it happen, they are digging a deeper hole for themselves by letting them go on without management to the point that they are in fact a serious threat, then the methods, and determination of people to get rid of them will be even more so. This country lacks so much common sense it’s disgusting, along with politics and all the hoops to try and get something done…nothing gets done.

United States…the only thing that unites them anymore is the blanket of federal oversight over them all, and the money that private individuals put in the pockets of politicians so they will side with their cause.